GREYHAWK CY963 GOLDEN ERA CAMPAIGN: HEROES OF DYVERS: CHAPTER 4

Taking a chance for GLORY!

Lathir, as you step onto the plate, a wave of energy sweeps over you, and you feel the crackle of lightning surround you; strangely enough, you are unharmed.

In what can only be described as "riding the lightning," you are sucked up into the essence of a bolt of lightning, and hurled into the sky, and then back down, toward the ground.

Instead of crashing head first, as it seems you might initially, you land safely inside what appears to be a small, man-made cave, dug from the side of a hill, from the looks of it.

YOU DO NOT SEE A TELEPORTATION CIRCLE HERE. Apparently, this was a one way trip.

The cave is unremarkable; it is dug from hard-packed clay, which is moist, but quite firm. It is not wet enough to be slippery, although it does rub off to the touch. You surmise that this cave was dug out with the aid of magic, because the angles are too precise. Effort has been made to "rough it up" and give it a natural look, but you are not so easily fooled. This is the work of magic.

Outside, near the mouth of the cave, you hear the constant, harsh noise of heavy rainfall. Despite the fact that it is mid-day, cloud cover and rain density limit visibility severely, allowing vision distances of less than 75 feet for shadowy shapes, and less than 10 feet for detail.

The cave mouth is perhaps 25 feet or so above the ground, in the middle of a canyon wall. The canyon runs North-Northeast to South-Southwest, and there is a well-traveled dirt road running through the center of the canyon. The Eastern side of the canyon wall is steep, a straight drop from the elevation of where the cave mouth would be; however, the Western wall has a slope to it, and it would be possible, if one were careful, to navigate down the wall, to the bottom of the canyon floor.



As you are taking all of this in, you hear a popping sound behind you, although when you turn to look, you see nothing.

You are beginning to wonder if you were hallucinating, until you hear a familiar voice say, "Whoa! What a rush," followed by a deeper, also familiar voice that says, "I am not sure I like this, but I am ready to deal with whatever comes our way."


Lathir: What do you do?

I open my mouth to raise some concerns about the choice, but smile and shake my head slightly, preparing for the teleportation. As we arrive and with the noticeable lack of immediate threat, I breathe a sigh of relief. "... I hope someone has a map or knows where we are. As is, it's likely going to be a long trek home. I hope Vega doesn't worry and do anything rash."

Sylvar takes a moment to get oriented then says.I'm going to investigate outside. Anyone wishing to remain invisible will need to walk with me. Sylvar walks outside and wanders about a bit. He looks around from the mouth of the cave first, he checks the ground for foot prints, then walks down to the road and looks for anything noticeable, or interesting.

Sylvar, it's still pouring down rain, so you aren't able to see a lot of details.



By the time you reach the canyon floor, you're drenched to the point of complete saturation.

The road is heavily traveled in both directions, but the tracks have been blended into mush by the rain. Only a trained tracker could make heads or tails of this mess.

The one thing that you do manage to observe is that despite being in a canyon, you are not in a locale that would be considered truly mountainous. This area is more of a sparsely wooded, rolling knoll / low-level hill region, your best guess placing the hilltops at an average elevation of between 75 and 100 feet.

Thallok:
Thallok goes with Sylvar to take a look around. Upon seeing what Sylvar sees he tells the others with him "I have heard tales of these types of lands and their inhabitants. Our king is mightily feared by hill giants, ogres, and other creatures that would make men shiver. We were told that they fear Gurrock so much that they would do whatever he wished, hence the allegiance they swore. This land looks like lands that were described in those tales. We must be cautious, I am sure there are hill giants and ogres in these lands. Hill Giants who are doing the bidding of the king of the Orcs."

Kleborn:
Kleborn also accompanies Sylvar and the others out of the cave for a view. He says to Thallok, "As long as we are in this sphere we are protected."

Sylvar to everyone: Other than the fact that we are surrounded by hills and the road below is well traveled. I know nothing of the area. I suggest that we wait out the rain then find the nearest settlement and find out where we are. We will also need to quietly ask around for information concerning odd occurrences that could be attributed to the Drow queen. Personally I would like to dry out before walking any sort of long distance. I fear that I may come down with a case of trench foot, swamp ass and severe chafing other wise.

Sylvar strips down to his small clothes and wrings out everything he can. He puts his damp clothes back on, except that he changes into a fresh pair of socks as he waits for his boots to dry a little.

Standing at the mouth of the artificial cave, Lathir watches the rain for bit. He turns at the crackling sound but sees nothing there. The sound of familiar voices indicate that the others have arrived and are, indeed, invisible. He smiles at the comments then turns back toward the scene outside scanning the area visually for a bit.

He feels the body heat, hears the foot falls, and sees the indentions in the soft clay of the others who pass into the downpour. Seeing nothing but the pouring rain, Lathir ventures out into it and down to the roadway. He looks both ways for time, then down at the muddy path trying to determine which direction is the most frequent choice of travel and what manner of humanoid, creature, or vehicle is using it. Having nothing pressing concerning his time or safety, Lathir takes his time studying the road.

He thinks to himself, ~Rain never bothers me, but it does make it difficult to see when it comes down like this.~

Resigning himself to becoming drenched, Lathir takes the time to thoroughly examine the road.

As he makes discoveries, he relays the information to the party.



There are various kinds of Demihuman and Humanoid tracks here, including Orcs, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Ogres, and Trolls. There are also wagon tracks (probably Human, although Elves sometimes also employ wagons). The VAST MAJORITY of the tracks are hostile Humanoids (Orcs, Giants, Ogres, Trolls) so much so that it seems that this whole region must be in Humanoid hands, and the Humans/Demihumans who use this road are doing so at great peril. The pattern of the tracks suggest regular patrols, in large numbers; your guess would be 10-15 Orcs, and maybe 20-25 Ogres. The Troll and Giant tracks are less frequent, probably because patrol duty is left to the "peons."

The newest set of Human/Demihuman tracks heads South, as do the newest set of Orc and Ogre tracks. Judging from placement, you think that a combined group (Orcs AND Ogres at the same time) was following a group of Humanoids employing horses and wagons. If you want to investigate that scenario, then you need to head South.

After conveying his discoveries, audibly, to the rest of the party, Lathir suggests heading South, despite the rain.

Upon the information being relayed, I grip the hilt of my blade."For now it seems we are through fighting undead. Tam-Tam, you will likely be better served with familiar weapons instead of those I loaned out." Looking to the others, I continue, "from the sounds of it, one group is in danger of being overtaken. I think we should move to aid them. In doing so, we might also be able to aid ourselves by learning exactly where we are and how to get home." With that, I start following the tracks to the south.